Dati sanitari: la Francia volta pagina su Microsoft e opta per un cloud sovrano

>The French government is launching a call for tenders to migrate the Health Data Hub, which centralises citizens’ health data, away from Microsoft servers.

>The aim is to entrust this strategic repository to a SecNumCloud-certified European player by the end of March 2026, thereby guaranteeing protection against extraterritorial US laws and strengthening digital sovereignty.

>Officially announced on Friday 6 February 2026, the news marks a radical change of direction. On Monday, the government will launch a call for tenders to find a new host for the Health Data Platform (PDS), better known as the Health Data Hub, a huge database that collects anonymised health information from millions of French citizens. Hosting this database on Microsoft Azure’s cloud put France at odds with its own sovereignty requirements.

>Since its creation in 2019, the Health Data Hub has been a source of tension. The goal was commendable: to create a valuable repository of information for researchers by providing them with simplified access to comprehensive health data to advance science.

>However, the choice of Microsoft as the host immediately posed a major problem. Extraterritorial US laws, such as the Cloud Act, potentially allow US authorities to access this data, even if it is stored in Europe.

>This sword of Damocles has poisoned the project, slowing its deployment and arousing the mistrust of the CNIL, the guardian of digital freedoms.

>Faced with this legal and technical impasse, the government decided to take decisive action. The new call for tenders imposes a non-negotiable condition: the future host must be SecNumCloud certified.

>This label, issued by ANSSI (the French National Cybersecurity Agency), guarantees the highest level of security and, above all, total immunity from non-European legislation.

>In effect, it excludes American giants such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Google, and paves the way for qualified French or European players.

>Several candidates are already lining up to take over. French companies such as OVH Cloud, associated with the La Poste group, and Cloud Temple and its partner Atos, have the valuable certification.

>Orange Business is also a potential competitor for this strategic market. The deadline has been set: the contract will be awarded at the end of March 2026, with the aim of transferring a complete copy of the database by the end of the same year.

>For the ministers concerned, this migration is a decisive step towards strengthening digital sovereignty and paves the way for the future European health data space.

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When I read the title, I feared it was going to be Amazon’s “European” Sovereign Cloud.